Recently I took some time to revisit wet cyan printing. Check out this post from last year about my first adventure with this process.
I really can’t believe it’s taken me this long to try this again. Seems like life just gets in the way of some art fun! In this session I added Marabu Fashion Sprays to this process. I really love these sprays.
I am again using the Jacquard Cyanotype pretreated fabric sheets.
Once the fabric is prepared or if you buy it already pretreated, place it on a surface. I used cardboard covered with plastic, but you can use glass, foam core or anything that’s sturdy.
Place your botanicals or other masks on the fabric. For a couple of these pieces I used asparagus ferns.
- Spritz the fabric with the Fashion Spray.
- To add the little speckles, sprinkle the fabric with soda ash.
- Cover with glass.
- Take it out to the sun.
I left my pieces out in the sun for 20 minutes. Jacquard recommends that it is better to overexpose than underexpose.
This is how it looked after taking off the glass and the ferns. For this piece I used Raspberry Fashion Spray.
Now the fabric goes into cold water for five minutes or so. Change out the water a couple times. When the water is clear, hang your fabric to dry. Here is the finished piece.
I’ll be trying this again using more of the Fashion Spray. But I do like the subtle color that it added. As I mentioned the speckles are made by sprinkling soda ash on the fabric.
Here are the other pieces from this session. I used Tangerine Fashion Spray on this one. This was the first piece of the session so I put less on and got less color. I also added water first like in the previous post, and that made the splotches I don’t like.
The last two are regular ferns. I again used the Raspberry Fashion Spray.
This one I used Sunshine Yellow Fashion Spray.
Next time I’ll add more color. I like the subtle touch, but would like to see what happens if I add more.
If you are wondering where I got the asparagus ferns, they came from our asparagus bed. I love how the bed looks once harvesting is over. I thought they would make great marks on the fabric. I do believe I’ll have to use them in sun printing and other surface design techniques.
I continue to get up around 5 almost every morning, and head out to the yard to whip the beds in shape. After several hours, I still have the whole day ahead but I often don’t have a lot of energy to get into art. But I feel that in the next several weeks I’ll have more time to devote to playing in the studio.
Hope you are staying healthy and safe, and taking time for a little creative play. I’m linking to Off the Wall Friday. Check out the inspiration there.
This is amazing. I’ve thought about this, but not had the courage to do it. What is soda ash and where do you find it?
Hi Jackie, Thanks. It’s so much fun and easy. Soda ash is used for fabric dyeing so I always have it around. It’s a supply you can pick up in the pool supplies. However, if you are not planning on dyeing in the future, just try regular table salt. I’ve not tried that but it works in other processes. In fact, I’m planning on trying it next time.
Very cool! We have a very small asparagus bed. The idea of using the ferns for sun printing is an awesome idea! Been wanting to do some sun printing this summer, so the ferns will be my go to.
Thanks so much for sharing!!
Jeannette, Thanks. I really love how the ferns looked. I can’t believe I never thought about using them in the past. Have fun and thanks for stopping by.